School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
School of Medicine, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
Biomolecules. 2023 Jul 5;13(7):1076. doi: 10.3390/biom13071076.
Many people suffer from hair loss and abnormal skin pigmentation, highlighting the need for simple assays to support drug discovery research. Current assays have various limitations, such as being in vitro only, not sensitive enough, or unquantifiable. We took advantage of the bilateral symmetry and large size of mouse whisker follicles to develop a novel in vivo assay called "whisker follicle microinjection assay". In this assay, we plucked mouse whiskers and then injected molecules directly into one side of the whisker follicles using microneedles that were a similar size to the whiskers, and we injected solvent on the other side as a control. Once the whiskers grew out again, we quantitatively measured their length and color intensity to evaluate the effects of the molecules on hair growth and coloring. Several chemicals and proteins were used to test this assay. The chemicals minoxidil and ruxolitinib, as well as the protein RSPO1, promoted hair growth. The effect of the clinical drug minoxidil could be detected at a concentration as low as 0.001%. The chemical deoxyarbutin inhibited melanin production. The protein was identified as a novel hair-growth inhibitor. In conclusion, we successfully established a sensitive and quantitative in vivo assay to evaluate the effects of chemicals and proteins on hair growth and coloring and identified a novel regulator by using this assay. This whisker follicle microinjection assay will be useful when investigating protein functions and when developing drugs to treat hair loss and abnormal skin pigmentation.
许多人患有脱发和皮肤色素异常，这凸显了对支持药物发现研究的简单检测方法的需求。目前的检测方法存在各种局限性，例如仅在体外进行、不够敏感或无法定量。我们利用小鼠胡须毛囊的双侧对称性和较大尺寸，开发了一种新的体内检测方法，称为“胡须毛囊微注射检测法”。在该检测中，我们拔出小鼠胡须，然后使用与胡须大小相似的微针将分子直接注射到胡须毛囊的一侧，在另一侧注射溶剂作为对照。当胡须再次长出来后，我们定量测量它们的长度和颜色强度，以评估这些分子对毛发生长和着色的影响。我们使用几种化学物质和蛋白质来测试这种检测方法。化学物质米诺地尔和鲁索替尼以及蛋白质 RSPO1 促进毛发生长。临床药物米诺地尔的作用可以在低至 0.001%的浓度下检测到。化学物质对苯二酚抑制黑色素生成。该蛋白质被鉴定为一种新的毛发生长抑制剂。总之，我们成功建立了一种敏感且定量的体内检测方法，用于评估化学物质和蛋白质对毛发生长和着色的影响，并通过该检测方法鉴定了一种新的调节剂。这种胡须毛囊微注射检测法将在研究蛋白质功能和开发治疗脱发和皮肤色素异常的药物时非常有用。
